If an algorithm like RankBrain has been running and self-updating since 2015, then read this and re-read it again:
“RankBrain tweaks the algorithm on its own. Depending on the keyword, RankBrain will increase or decrease the importance of backlinks, content freshness, content length, domain authority, etc. Then, it looks at how Google searchers interact with the new search results.” – Backlinko
In essence, RankBrain is an AI algorithm that was built to learn and adapt over time, which allows it to better understand search trends and queries.
Never mind Hummingbird, another AI-based algorithm released in 2013 designed to improve the quality of search results for conversational queries.
All Google engineers would need to do is turn the dial up and this, let alone any other algorithm, could have caught all these mass-produced articles targeting long tail questions with an exact match H1 and meta title.